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Well, another April Fool's Day has come and gone, and as most who know me know, I can't resist a good practical joke, and an outrageous yet vaguely plausible shaggy dog story is my preferred medium. Frankly, though, I'm amazed this year's installment fooled anybody.
The tells:
*April Fool's Day falling on a Sunday made this particular joke a tough sell, as it hinged on the fact that no one would have heard about it before now, in a medium that wasn't on the Web and thus, easily checked.
*Setting aside the issue of my never-before mentioned fictional agent, I'm flattered that anybody could believe I'd nail down a simultaneous book and movie deal, let alone for something called Never Spoken: Sex, Redemption and Poetry. I can't think of a less commercial-sounding book/film! Also, any semi-autobiographical work that I would write would probably be something of a snoozer. Aside from a few colorful chapters in a misspent youth, I've spent most of my life with my nose in a book, and my poetry career has been pretty much the same. I don't do drugs, barely drink and have spent the past 16 years in a happy relationship. I don't even tour as much as I should. Seriously. Writers like me might get book deals or movie deals on occasion, if we're lucky, but rarely both at the same time, and not for that sort of thing. (:
*Alas, to many people's disappointment, The Worcester Hip-Hop, Spoken Word and Burlesque Festival was indeed also a fictional creation. However, I think we should seriously talk about making this happen, because it would rock. I saw Cowboy Matt and Jeff Siegrist today, and they were totally into the idea. (However, I wasn't lying about being knee deep on working on new content for Telegram.com, including a relaunch of my What You're Listening To column. Not as sexy, I know, but it's still going to be pretty cool.)
*The rap stuff is where I was really pushing it, and many people told me that's where they knew for certain it was a joke. The structural tell, in the joke, is that I say it's the story of a young rapper, when earlier I said I wanted to be played by Paul Rudd. I almost went back and fixed that before I posted the story, but decided it was funnier that way. Also, no one wants to hear me rap. Seriously. It would be bad. Dogs howling at the moon bad. Like, not even bad in an entertaining Shatneriffic way. Just outright, do not pass go, do not collect $200 awful.
*The part of this all that was outside my control was that poet David Lehman, a very witty man whom I've interviewed in the past, perpetuated a similar prank ... only better. Read the article James Franco Buys Film Rights to David Lehman's "The Last Avant-Garde" for Record Amount: Actor to Play Poet Kenneth Koch on the Best American Poetry site. Enough people read both this blog and that one that I thought one joke would cancel out the other. In a few cases, it seems the reverse was actually true.
And that's about it. Happy April Fool's Day, Hail Eris, and thank you all for being such wonderful sports about the whole thing. Reading the comments here, on Facebook and elsewhere have been great, and I'm glad that the people who figured it out a few minutes after posting took it so well. And trust me. If I ever do get that sort of deal on that sort of level, I will have an immense amount of trouble keeping it mum. I'm pretty sure you all will be amongst the first to know.
The tells:
*April Fool's Day falling on a Sunday made this particular joke a tough sell, as it hinged on the fact that no one would have heard about it before now, in a medium that wasn't on the Web and thus, easily checked.
*Setting aside the issue of my never-before mentioned fictional agent, I'm flattered that anybody could believe I'd nail down a simultaneous book and movie deal, let alone for something called Never Spoken: Sex, Redemption and Poetry. I can't think of a less commercial-sounding book/film! Also, any semi-autobiographical work that I would write would probably be something of a snoozer. Aside from a few colorful chapters in a misspent youth, I've spent most of my life with my nose in a book, and my poetry career has been pretty much the same. I don't do drugs, barely drink and have spent the past 16 years in a happy relationship. I don't even tour as much as I should. Seriously. Writers like me might get book deals or movie deals on occasion, if we're lucky, but rarely both at the same time, and not for that sort of thing. (:
*Alas, to many people's disappointment, The Worcester Hip-Hop, Spoken Word and Burlesque Festival was indeed also a fictional creation. However, I think we should seriously talk about making this happen, because it would rock. I saw Cowboy Matt and Jeff Siegrist today, and they were totally into the idea. (However, I wasn't lying about being knee deep on working on new content for Telegram.com, including a relaunch of my What You're Listening To column. Not as sexy, I know, but it's still going to be pretty cool.)
*The rap stuff is where I was really pushing it, and many people told me that's where they knew for certain it was a joke. The structural tell, in the joke, is that I say it's the story of a young rapper, when earlier I said I wanted to be played by Paul Rudd. I almost went back and fixed that before I posted the story, but decided it was funnier that way. Also, no one wants to hear me rap. Seriously. It would be bad. Dogs howling at the moon bad. Like, not even bad in an entertaining Shatneriffic way. Just outright, do not pass go, do not collect $200 awful.
*The part of this all that was outside my control was that poet David Lehman, a very witty man whom I've interviewed in the past, perpetuated a similar prank ... only better. Read the article James Franco Buys Film Rights to David Lehman's "The Last Avant-Garde" for Record Amount: Actor to Play Poet Kenneth Koch on the Best American Poetry site. Enough people read both this blog and that one that I thought one joke would cancel out the other. In a few cases, it seems the reverse was actually true.
And that's about it. Happy April Fool's Day, Hail Eris, and thank you all for being such wonderful sports about the whole thing. Reading the comments here, on Facebook and elsewhere have been great, and I'm glad that the people who figured it out a few minutes after posting took it so well. And trust me. If I ever do get that sort of deal on that sort of level, I will have an immense amount of trouble keeping it mum. I'm pretty sure you all will be amongst the first to know.
